Iron Man 2

Edit: I watched Citalopram hydrobromide this movie What is simvastatin for a Diclofenac sod Bystolic side affects ec 75 second time thinking it might be better.  It was not.  It was worse.  All the flaws I saw in the first viewing were exaggerated to the point of obscuring any good qualities.  The action and special effects are still pretty good.  But they aren’t worth stomaching the rest.  Read on for my reaction to the first viewing (with minor edits)

First off I want to say that I enjoyed this movie.  But Iron Man 2 is more fun than it is good.  I really enjoyed the first Iron Man.  It had a great character arc in Tony Stark and a good plot.  Add great special effects into this and you had a winner.

Why was the second movie more fun than good?  They fumbled the character arc they set up in the first movie, and the plot was disjointed.  But the action was great fun.  If some mostly good performances, clever jokes, and great action is what you want then look no further.  You will might enjoy this movie.

Superhero action is always fun and once Tony Stark got his head back on straight with about a third of the movie left it got very good.  From this point you get lots of action, great special effects, and better characters. It feels like they finally got the movie in gear. The Iron Man/War Machine sequence at the end is really good.  Lots of robots die.

The first two thirds of the movie had some problems but it had some bright points as well.  Robert Downey Jr. delivers a strong performance.  The dialog is pretty good most part of the time.  There were some awesome one-eye jokes.

So let’s talk about the problems now.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet then don’t read what comes next.  See the movie, form your own opinions, then come back and read the rest and agree or disagree with me.

[SPOILERS begin here]

The first thing that bothered me is that they seemed to have thrown out most of Tony Stark’s character arc from the first movie.  At the end of the first movie he had gone from arrogant jerk to confident hero.  At the beginning of the second movie he is back to the arrogant womanizing jerk.  It may be typical for a person to revert back to the way they were before but the writers could have provided a reason for it to happen.

I think one of the reasons the writers felt the need to make Tony more like he was at the beginning of the first movie was that it succeeded.  Give the fans more of the same.  This can be clearly seen in the annoyingly out-of-place clumsy robot arm.  It fit in the first movie because there were robot arms all over Tony’s garage.  Having one of them be the comic relief worked really well.  In the second movie they are all gone.  Except this one.  It was still there being as inept as ever.  Why would Tony keep this one around after all the others are gone?  Inexplicable and annoying.  Moving on.

Next,what happened to the relationship between Tony and Pepper?  It isn’t explained.  It is just understood that there is awkwardness between them.  If they had explained why they weren’t hitting it off it would have provided a reason for Tony to revert back to his old self.  But at the very end Tony realizes that he loves her.  And she loves him.  And they kiss.  Why?  There is no relationship building in the movie at all.

How about conflict in the story?  Can you pick out the central conflict?  Here are your choices.

1. Russian dude with daddy issues who is coming after Tony
2. Tony dealing with his mortality
3. Rival businessman Hammer has it in for Tony
4. Tony vs. the US government that wants his technology

So which one is the central conflict?  The answer that the movie wants you to pick is number 1.  It bookends the movie.  It opens with the Russian guy building his own suit and ends with Tony Stark beating him.  But it was too easy and it didn’t deliver any kind of emotional impact.  It was anticlimactic.  So the answer to the question is that there really is no central conflict.  This is what made the movie feel disjointed to me.  It couldn’t decide what problem it was trying to solve.  Or maybe it was trying to solve too much yet didn’t do a great job with any of them.

How could they have fixed this?  The answer is in the dads.  The Russian guy’s dad died not giving his son the life he thought he should because Tony’s dad kept him from being able to.  Tony on the other hand apparently has always felt that his dad never loved him.  But this bit of information is given to us late in the movie.  If they had made this more central in the conflict between Tony and the Russian guy it would have delivered a greater emotional impact and made the fight between the two meaningful.

Last on my list is Tony’s depression.  This is a pivotal part of the movie.  He is dying and doesn’t quite know how to deal with his mortality.  This occupies a good portion of the movie but all we get as a resolution is some technobabble about the creation of a new element that will save him.  They wrap this up too quickly and don’t get any impact out of something that dominated Tony’s character for much of the movie.

Maybe I am being too harsh.  Or maybe I am just flat wrong.  This is an action movie.  They don’t have to make sense right?  But I like them too and there is proof out there that it can be done.

[End of SPOILERS]

I will say it again, I enjoyed the movie.  I really did.  But Coming off the first movie I was a little disappointed in some of the plot and character decisions that went into this movie.  I wanted to like it more.  Should you see it?  If you were a fan of the first movie then yes (but you will be disappointed).  If you are a fan of good superhero action then yes.  If you absolutely require the story and characters to make sense to enjoy a movie then maybe not.  Regardless, it was a fun movie that I will watch again. (I did.  And it was worse.  I won’t be watching it again.)

Note to parents: As I mentioned before Mr. Stark is back to his normal self in this movie including his horrible treatment and use of women.  He is a womanizer.  This may be true to his character but it is not a good example for men of any age to see.  Also, during a downturn in Tony’s mood we get a pretty bad example of how to deal with down times in life.  He drowns himself in alcohol while giving the advice, “Don’t think, drink.”